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Committee hears sponsor and MDC support removing unused agroforestry statute
Summary
Representative Tim Taylor told the committee House Bill 2,267 is a statutory cleanup removing an unused 1990 agroforestry program; the Missouri Department of Conservation and University of Missouri signaled no objection because federal EQIP and MU programs have filled the original role.
Representative Tim Taylor presented House Bill 2,267, describing the measure as a clean‑up that removes a state program enacted in 1990 that never took effect because other agencies and federal programs (notably EQIP) provided the intended services. Taylor said landowner assistance and agroforestry work have been carried forward through University of Missouri and EQIP mechanisms rather than through the dormant statute.
Aaron Jeffries, deputy director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, provided informational testimony and said the University of Missouri had driven the 1990 legislation but agencies never fully implemented the statute. Jeffries said MDC provides cost‑share support for agroforestry and similar practices, federal funding through the farm bill and EQIP/CSP remains the major funding source, and MU has become a national leader on agroforestry. "We met with the University of Missouri. They had absolutely no concerns with removing this legislation," Jeffries said.
Committee members asked whether removing the statute would leave a gap if federal funding declined; witnesses said other state programs and private funding have tended to sustain these conservation practices and that cleaning up unused statutory language is standard legislative housekeeping. The committee closed the hearing without taking a vote.
